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An creek so narrow you barely got your feet wet divided a community for in excess of four decades worth of time. Due to a quirk of topography, the fifty locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet surrounded by pine forests, pastures and breathtaking vistas, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was marked first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops nicknamed it Little Berlin.

Preserving the Past

Several months after their own division was torn down, and even before their nation had unified again in 1990, a collection of local people began commemorating their past. The project is about to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not completely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the former times, Steinmeier stated: “You were bystanders of an inhuman split, which tore families asunder and turned neighbors into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which pulled families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Reuss Principality, a royal family most renowned for bestowing all its male members the designation Heinrich and labeling them sequentially by birth. As Steinmeier told the crowd, the oddity did not stand in the manner of the residents socializing in the very same inn, going to the very same religious building and placing their young ones to the identical school.

Following WWII Separation

Then came the global conflict. As soon as they appeared, the Russian troops installed wooden posts by the stream. For a twelve months they took over the complete village, creating their control center in a building on the Bavarian territory side, embellishing it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to pull back back over the brook. For a while, villagers could continue to cross over, though as restrictions became stricter they were forced to show identification, even though everyone was aware who they were, and to go back at after dark.

Increase of Frontier Measures

Then, in 1952, came metal barriers and the official closing of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a barrier was constructed, with mines, vehicle barriers and guard posts. The villagers could continue to view each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. One woman was placed on a Stasi monitoring list for replying “back at you” to a Bavarian resident who said her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Creation

It was related to me narratives such as these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Locals were asked at an early stage about how what length of wall they desired to maintain. They selected a stretch on the Bavarian fringe, close to where a villager succeeded to flee in the middle of the night with a climbing device, following which the border was significantly fortified.

Preserved Structures

A pair of watchtowers are conserved in addition to a set of exhibits depicting the most impactful events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we move, Lebergen enumerates the regulations: nobody could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers had to obtain specific authorization to tend to their fields; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but never the two, lest they attempted to flee. Military personnel stood watch.

Broader Background

The border between West Germany and the GDR ran 1,400km, from the Baltic Sea in the north to here in the south. Berlin is recalled and documented the most, but over double the number persons (well over 300) lost their lives attempting to cross it in countryside regions than in the metropolis. the director tells me that almost all of escape attempts failed.

Hamlet Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or skilled workers, who adjusted to residing in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and tending to their land. They did not endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a sort of destination. Roughly 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in possession, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

25 years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, caused new attention.

Modern Developments

The launch of the new museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and large parking lot – is probable to